A Submit workspace is a free workspace in New Expensify for employees who want to get reimbursed by their employer. You can scan receipts, code your expenses with categories and tags, and submit reports to an approver — even if your company hasn’t adopted Expensify yet. There’s no cost to submit, and your approver doesn’t need an account to receive your report.

Premium features are not included in a Submit workspace. To use approvals, payments, company cards, the Expensify Card, Per Diem, Expensify Travel, invoices, or accounting integrations, you’ll need to learn how to upgrade your workspace plan.

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Who can use a Submit workspace

• Anyone can create a free Submit workspace.
• Anyone on your company’s email domain can join your Submit workspace and is added as an Editor.
• An Editor can configure the workspace (such as adding categories and tags) but cannot see other members’ expenses or reports, and cannot change member roles.

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How to create a Submit workspace

You can create a Submit workspace when you create your Expensify account or on the Expensify pricing and plans page.

When creating your Expensify account:

1. Sign up for New Expensify.
2. When asked What do you want to do today?, select Submit expenses to my employer.
3. If no one on your email domain already has a workspace you can join, a Submit workspace is created for you automatically.

If you already have an Expensify account:

1. Go to the Expensify pricing and plans page.
2. Find the Submit plan.
3. Click Get started.

What happens after you create a Submit workspace

• You can configure workspace settings, like categories and tags.
• You can submit reports for approval.
• Coworkers on the same email domain can join your workspace.

Members who join a Submit workspace are assigned the Editor role.

Editors can:

• Configure shared workspace settings, including categories and tags.
• Create and submit their own reports.

Editors can’t:

• View other members’ expenses or reports.
• Change member roles.

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How to join an existing Submit workspace

If someone on your email domain already owns a Submit workspace, you can join it when creating your Expensify account:

1. Create an Expensify account.
2. Complete the prompts to set up your account.
3. On the step See if your team’s in Expensify, enter the validation code sent to your email address.
4. If there are existing workspaces associated with your email domain, you’ll be prompted to join one. Select the Submit workspace.``

When you join, you’re added as an Editor. You can collaborate on the workspace configuration, but you can’t see or take action on other members’ expenses or reports.

If you weren’t automatically added to the workspace when you created your account, ask a current Editor of the Submit workspace to invite you to join. Learn how to invite members to a workspace.

How to submit an expense to an approver

Submit workspaces let you submit reports directly to the person who approves your expenses by entering their email. Your approver doesn’t need an Expensify account to receive the report.

If you haven’t created your report yet, learn how to create and submit reports.

To submit expenses to an approver:

1. Open the report you want to submit.
2. Click Submit.
3. Select an existing workspace member, or enter the email address of your approver.
4. Click Confirm to submit the report.

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How to mark a report as paid

If you’ve been reimbursed outside of Expensify, you can mark an outstanding report as paid so you can track its status yourself:

1. Open the outstanding report.
2. Select Mark as paid.

Marking a report as paid lets you track which of your submitted reports are still outstanding without requiring your approver to sign in. After a report is marked as paid, your approver can no longer take action on it.

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What happens when my approver clicks Approve?

If your approver clicks Approve, they’re prompted to upgrade the workspace to a paid plan before they can complete the approval.

If they upgrade:

• The workspace is upgraded to the Collect plan.
• The approver becomes the workspace owner and admin.
• All existing members, including you, are assigned the Member role.
• You’ll receive a message from Concierge letting you know the workspace was upgraded.

If they don’t upgrade:

• They still receive the report by email and can view the attached PDF, but they can’t change the report status to Approved.

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FAQ

Can I downgrade a paid workspace back to a Submit workspace?

No. Once a workspace is upgraded to Collect or Control, it can’t be downgraded back to Submit. To use a Submit workspace again, delete the upgraded workspace and create a new Submit workspace.

Why can’t I see other members’ expenses in my Submit workspace?

Editors can configure the workspace, but can’t see other members’ submitted reports. This keeps everyone’s expense data private while still allowing the group to share categories, tags, and other configurations.

Do I have to pay to submit expenses?

No. Submitting expenses and marking reports as paid are free. Payment is only required when someone upgrades the workspace to a paid plan, such as when an approver approves a report.